bms-214662 in treating patients with acute leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or chronic myeloid leukemia

Conditions: Adult Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (M3); Blastic Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia; Childhood Myelodysplastic Syndromes; Previously Treated Myelodysplastic Syndromes; Recurrent Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Recurrent Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia; Recurrent Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Recurrent Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia; Refractory Anemia With Excess Blasts; Refractory Anemia With Excess Blasts in Transformation; Relapsing Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Summary: drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. phase i trial to study the effectiveness of bms-214662 in treating patients who have acute leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or chronic myeloid leukemia in blast phase

primary objectives: i. determine the maximum tolerated dose and dose limiting toxicity of bms-214662 in patients with acute leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or chronic myeloid leukemia in blast phase. ii. determine any preliminary evidence of antileukemia activity of this drug in these patients. outline: this is a dose escalation study. patients receive bms-214662 iv over 1 hour weekly for 4 weeks. treatment continues every 4 weeks for a maximum of 12 courses in the absence of unacceptable toxicity or disease progression. cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of bms-214662 until the maximum tolerated dose (mtd) is determined. the mtd is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 6 patients experience dose limiting toxicities. projected accrual: a maximum of 30 patients will be accrued for this study within 10 months.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * patients must have: * aml, all, or high-risk mds (raeb or raeb-t) that has: * not responded (no cr) to initial induction chemotherapy, or * recurred after an initial cr of \< 1 year, or * recurred after an initial cr of \> 1 year and failed to respond to an initial reinduction attempt, or * recurred more than once, or * chronic myeloid leukemia in myeloid blast phase * patients with cml blast phase may receive bms-214662 as their first therapy for blast phase or after failing other treatments for blast phase * patients with refractory or relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia are eligible provided they have failed an atra-containing regimen * performance status of =\< 0-2 * signed informed consent indicating that patients are aware of the investigational nature of this study in keeping with the policies of the hospital * patients must have been off chemotherapy for the 4 weeks prior to entering this study and recovered from the toxic effects of that therapy; patients with evidence of rapidly progressive disease (i.e., absolute peripheral blood blast count \>= 5 x 10\^9/l and increasing by \>= 1 x 10\^9/l/24 hours) may receive treatment before 4 weeks from the previous treatment providing they have recovered from all toxic effects of that therapy; use of hydroxyurea on patients with rapidly proliferative disease is allowed up to 24 hours prior to the start of therapy * bilirubin =\< 1.5 mg/dl * creatinine =\ = 60 ml/hr * patients who are likely to benefit from allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (i.e., age \< 60 years of physiological age with histocompatible donor) should be excluded from this study unless such therapy is not feasible exclusion criteria: * pregnant and nursing females will be excluded; patients of childbearing potential should practice effective methods of contraception * patients with prolonged qtc interval on ekg are excluded